Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I don't think it's any secret that women collect so. much. makeup. Way more makeup than is necessary on a daily basis. It's weird because the majority of the makeup I own is not stuff I would ever actually wear out of the house. I have my go-to colors and products I use daily, the occasional saucy shade of eyeshadow for a night out, and a whole lotta other junk that I either collect and never throw away and feel the need to save or mostly used eyeshadows from clinique.

Well, in my effort to purge and pack, I have decided it is time for the unused and almost-as-old-as-me makeup to go. Surprisingly, there were some items of sentimental value or that just had fun memories attached to them. Indulge me.

Ahhhhh the lip stuff I wore to senior prom. I call it lip stuff because I really don't think you could call it gloss or lipstick. It was more of a stickgloss.

This is glitter. I wore this for halloweens and events that may or may not have had to do with some books about alleged vampires. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I am actually going to keep this though. You never know when a stay-at-home mom might need her face glitter.

I CANNOT believe I still have this eyeshadow. This is the eyeshadow I picked out solely to go with my bridesmaid dress for Dustin and Rebecca's wedding. Sooooo matchy-matchy. It's a mint green.

The eyeliner I wore to freshman year winter dance. If I had a time machine I would go back to tell myself that NO ONE WEARS EYELINER THAT MATCHES THEIR DRESS. Again with the matchy-matchy! Eyeshadow is forgivable. Eyeliner makes me cringe.

Probably my most sentimental items of makeup (I'm so weird). The blush and lipstick came in a Clinique bonus bag and I used them for stage makeup. They were the perfect shade for me (the lipstick is darker than the picture. Trust me). Many songs did I sing and lines did I deliver wearing this stuff. Oh well. *Throws in trash bag*

Well this is lotion. Not makeup. But this is a sample I received in my gift basket when I was a princess for Holiday at Home (a local pageant/scholarship program). I actually hate how it smells. Hate. It. But the smell does remind me of all the fun I had being a princess.

This is some lipstick that also came in the gift basket. It's a hilarious color and I decided to put it on. I. Look. Awesome in my scrubby clothes, unshowered, with no makeup except this amazing shade. Eh. I'll keep it.

BE GONE.

Now stop posting blogs and get back to packing. I swear you have ADD sometimes.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

I have recently stumbled onto some delicious things and I thought I would share. Because I'm nice like that. And because these are two things I previously thought to not be so delicious.

First off, cornbread. I've never had anything but feelings of ambivalence toward cornbread, even before I stopped eating gluten. To make it taste good I felt like I had to use an alarming amount of butter. But I have stumbled across a delicious recipe for vanilla cornbread. It is a dessert and it is delicious. Thank you gluten free goddess for this light yet filling recipe.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9 inch cake pan (I used an 8x8 pyrex and it was fine).

Whisk together dry ingredients then add wet ones. Beat by hand for about a minute. Add a couple of TBS water if batter is too thick (should be like cake batter). Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until center is firm to touch. Allow it to cool for at least 15 minutes on a wire rack so it doesn't fall apart.

I served this with homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries. It was delicious!

*I just put in 1 1/4 C of my favorite gluten free mix. If you're on a regular diet, congratulations. Also, you can just use 1 1/4 C regular flour.

**Us gluten free folk have to use xanthan gum to thicken up our breads and bread-like foods because of the lack of gluten.

And then we have eggplant. I didn't have a whole lot of exposure to eggplant before I went to China last summer. I'm not sure that was the best introduction to such a pretty looking vegetable. I was jet-lagged and experiencing morning sickness and it was cooked in all these weird sauces. After that trip I vowed I would never eat eggplant again. Fast forward to today. I was ambling up and down the farmer's market downtown and saw eggplants for a fabulous price and thought I would give them another try. I'm so glad I did.

Delicious Eggplant

Cut an eggplant or two (however many you want)length-wise. Brush both sides generously with olive oil and place in the bottom of a broiler pan. Sprinkle each slice with some coriander and place about 6 inches from the broiler for 5 or 6 minutes. Flip them over and sprinkle the other side with coriander. Broil for 5 or 6 minutes (I let mine get a little crunchy. mmmmmm). Pull them out and sprinkle with lemon juice, basil (fresh or dried), and salt. Eat them hot.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Before the thought of getting a sewing machine even crossed my mind I should have invested in a seam ripper. What was I thinking? I know me. It takes me for-ev-er to catch on to things. Well, taking an eternity to catch on to sewing? Means a lot of seam unpicking to do. A lot. BUT NO! A new sewing machine! says I. I'm naturally maternal and have become seriously domestic and sewing should come soooooo naturallllllyyyyy! Butterflies and unicorns and fairies and gumdrops! I'll just whip up an outfit fit for Project Runway! Weeeeeee!! says I.

I could not have been more. wrong.

Knowing I usually get too ambitious when I start somthing, end up not being able to do it, and then hate whatever it was that I started, I got the easiest pattern I could. It even said "EASY" on it. It's just a little sundress for Ava, how hard could it be? Right? RIGHT????????

Many unsaid curses and a month later I'm still not done. Side-rant: I am an intelligent human being and should therefore understand how to read a pattern and the instructions enclosed therein. However, I do not. It takes much examination of pictures and pep talks to figure things out. This also makes me angrier than I can say. Muchly. End side-rant. Anyway, I really buckled down today, hoping to finish.

I have now unpicked the same seam three times and I can truly say I hate bias strips.

Monday, July 12, 2010

I love friends. I love my friends. I tend to pick really amazing people as friends, not to brag or anything, so my friends are especially great. I love that I will have these friends forever. Like literally, forever (see D&C 130:2).

In Faux Auntie RaRa's case, forever is how long she will paying for her corruption of my child that commenced this very day.

This can only mean trouble.

So my baby facebooks. Big deal.

She also watches movies on her laptop. She's just really advanced for her age. (Ava actually turned on RaRa's DVD player....and Twilight started playing. Still not sure how I feel about this.)

I anticipate many more years of Faux RaRa's corruption. Good thing she's quality people.

It's been a while, hasn't it? I love how I'm always complaining to myself that my life isn't interesting enough to have anything about which to blog and then interesting things happen and I don't blog about it. Eh. What are you going to do?

Danny's really hunkered down with his studying - we barely see him - but that's to be expected. So my in-laws took a quick trip to Nauvoo last week and decided to kidnap Ava and me on the way. It was nice to have my in-laws all to myself and it's always refreshing to be in Nauvoo but I don't think I'll ever do it again with a 5 month old. At least not one that has the same personality as Ava. She was EXHAUSTED by the time we got home and slept all day Friday. Poor girl. There was just too much going on and she wanted to be part of it all. It's hard to be so little. ANYHOODLE, here are some pictures to document it all. Also, I love to see/go inside of/do work in the temple.